This site was created 18 October 1997 and last updated 18 October 2005

While
researching the Scottish surname McMORRAN I have sometimes found record
entries mispelt as McMURRAN. My initial supposition was that the
surname McMURRAN arose from a corruption of the McMORRAN name. The
picture does not appear to be this clear so I have now created this site
seperate from the McMORRAN ONE NAME STUDY for the McMURRAN surname and
its variants:

McMURRAN, McMURREN,
McMURRIN, McMURRAIN and McMURRIAN

The McMURRAN
name appears to originate in Ireland although it is also found in Scotland
and to a lesser extent in England. McMORRANs from Scotland have migrated
to Ireland over the centuries at least as far back as the time of the invasion
by Cromwell's armies. There are also some Irish families bearing
the surnames McMORRAN (and McMORAN) derived from the surname MORAN that
have no Scottish antecedents. No doubt the surnames of some of these
Scottish and Irish McMORRAN have been mispelt as McMURRAN over time and
this misspelling has been perpetuated. Other variations of the surname
spelling found in Ireland include McMURREN and McMURRIN.
The
McMURRAN surname became increasingly common in Scotland during the 19th
century especially in the south-west due to the wave of Irish immigrants
who settled in Scotland between 1820 and 1900. Over half of the McMURRAN
adults listed in the 1881 census of Scotland for instance are of Irish
birth.

The nineteenth
century saw many Scottish and Irish families emigrate to distant shores.
The main destinations for McMURRAN families were the USA, then Canada,
Australia and New Zealand. One American family who spell their
surname both McMURRIAN and McMURRAIN appear to have originally spelt it
McMURRIN. Most of the McMURRANs in America and Canada are of Irish
descent.

As I
am now focussing entirely on the McMorran surname this site will no longer be
updated after 2005
Anyone wishing to continue hosting and updating the McMurr*n site pages is
welcome to contact me:
Marcel Safier, P.O. Box 239, Holland Park 4121,
Queensland, Australia,msafier@ozemail.com.au